Photographs and Memories
by Death's Daughter
Summary: Eventual RemusSirius. Sirius had a camera, an oldfashioned muggle one. He used it to document memories. He wanted those memories shared.
1. The Camera

Sirius Black had a camera.

It was an old-fashioned, muggle camera that he had bought during a stay with the Potters in the summer between his third and fourth years at Hogwarts, prompted by a conversation with Mrs Potter.

He'd presented it to the other Marauders on their first night back in their fourth year.

"This," He had proclaimed solemnly. "Is our camera. With it we shall document everything we do and collect many embarrassing photos that can be used on our 17th birthdays to cause mortification and general mental scarring."

This, of course, meant that James was forced to explain to Peter and Remus that his mother had shown Sirius all James' baby pictures and told him how it was traditional to show embarrassing pictures of a person on the birthday they became an adult. Sirius had thought this was a wonderful idea – his family did not approve of photography for fun – but only because he liked the idea of sharing amusing pictures of himself, putting himself in a minority of roughly one in the whole country.

He kept all the photos in an unorganised mess in an album that he carried with him wherever he could.

Beside each picture was a date and a few words hinting at the story behind it.

It was a given that he wanted these stories to be told.


	2. Hair Tie September 1974

**Hair Tie ****– 26th September 1974**

"Moony," Sirius said, standing at the foot of Remus' bed with his camera. "Let me – "

"No." Remus said, not looking up from his book. Sirius pouted.

"You don't even know what I'm going to ask!" He protested.

"It doesn't matter. The answer's still no."

"But I - "

"No."

"Will you - "

"No."

"Can I - "

"No."

"Let me finish!" Sirius cried, exasperated. Remus looked up and met his eyes calmly.

"Fine. But the answer will still be no."

"Let me take a picture of you with your hair down."

"_Hell _no."

"Oh _Moony_!" Sirius whined. "_Please_!"

"No."

"But your hair's so pretty!"

"And thus you give yourself the reason I don't want photographic evidence of it." Remus said shortly, going back to his book. "Push off."

In protest to this cruel treatment, Sirius refused to push off for another five minutes, when it finally became obvious that Remus was going to ignore him no matter what he did.

* * *

"What's up with you?" James demanded, when he came across Sirius sulking in the common room, clutching his camera.

"Moony won't let me take a picture of his hair." Sirius muttered sulkily.

"Why on _earth_ would you want a picture of Moony's hair?" James asked, baffled.

"'S pretty." Sirius huffed. "'N I like pretty things."

James eyed him warily.

"You're not planning on _scalping_ him, are you?"

"No!"

"Alright then." James sat down beside him. "Then we're going to have to be sneaky about it."

"About what?"

"Getting a picture of Moony's hair!" James smacked Sirius upside the head. "Merlin, wake up!"

"You're going to help?" Sirius asked, frowning slightly.

"Meh, I haven't got anything better to do." He grinned at his friend. "Besides, you'll probably need to use the cloak."

* * *

"I don't think this is going to work." Sirius said frankly, as he and James lay on their stomachs under James' bed, camera at the ready. "With this angle, he'll see the camera before I can take the picture."

"Assuming he spends most of his time looking at his feet." James muttered dryly. "Now shut up. He's coming."

Remus did not actually arrive for another ten minutes, and by the time he did appear, Sirius had a crick in his neck and James had a severe case of pins and needles in his left leg. The werewolf's entrance startled Sirius out of his occupation thumping James' afflicted leg and watching him wince, making both of them jump and knock their heads on the wooden underside of the bed.

It was through great force of will and James' hand over his mouth that Sirius managed not to swear and was able, once he had sufficiently recovered, to wriggle to the foot of the bed and poke the camera curiously out from under the sheets flopping over the end ((James never made his bed if he could help it. Sirius sometimes made it for him, but only when he was intending to commandeer it for some reason or other)). He peered out too and watched Remus bustle around the room, getting his stuff ready for a shower.

James peeked his head out as well and they watched ((in a very stealthy, spy-like way. Sirius briefly pondered a career as the next James Bond. Never let it be said that Sirius Black did not read)), waiting for the perfect moment to take the so-important picture.

Before they could, however, Remus began to walk towards the bed they were hiding under, presumably to toss onto it the tie he had borrowed off James that morning. They panicked and began to wriggle back under the bed as fast as they could, bashing heads, elbows and shoulders in the process.

Unfortunately they weren't quite fast enough, and there was a quiet ((and probably partially imagined for effect)) 'crunch' as Remus trod on James' fingers.

The bespectacled boy's eyes went wide and he grimaced expressively. Sirius slapped his hand over the other boy's mouth, muffling the tirade of swearwords that came. As soon as he was able, James snatched his hand back and clutched it to his chest, face bright red and nostrils flared, breathing heavily.

By the time he had recovered, Remus had gone. They wriggled out from under the bed, Sirius feeling a little defeated, James just feeling rather severe pain.

"Who knew that git was so _heavy_?" He moaned, hobbling over to Sirius' bed ((he still had pins and needles)) and perching on the edge of it, tentatively poking his injured fingers. "They're broken. I know it. We'll have to go see Madam Pomfrey."

"Oh don't be such a drama queen." Sirius scoffed, brushing off his robes. "They're not broken."

"Of course they are! You wouldn't know, it wasn't _your_ hand he stood on!" James winced and shook the abused extremity. "_Merlin on a stick, that_ hurt! His bones must be made of lead. That's the only way to explain how he can be so heavy and so skinny at the same time."

"Can we focus, please?" Sirius asked. "Obviously Moony is more adept at avoiding having his photo taken than we previously thought. We shall have to be even sneakier."

"Sneakier than Super Sneaky?" James asked doubtfully, around a mouthful of hand as he sucked on his injured fingers.

"Sneakier than Super Sneaky." Sirius confirmed. "Prongs, we shall have to be _Super_ Super Sneaky."

"That's very sneaky."

"It is. It is indeed."

* * *

"Prongs," Sirius said, as he, Peter and James made their way down to the Whomping Willow. "I think I may have ethical problems with taking photographs of Moony after the full moon."

"You have ethics?" James asked, surprised. Sirius shot him a withering look. "Alright, alright. I'm not terribly fussed with the idea either, but you have to admit, it'll be the perfect time. He always takes his hair tie out before he transforms."

Sirius gave a noncommittal grunt, and they continued through to the Shrieking Shack, placing the bag with the blanket in ((underneath which was the camera)) on a high shelf out of harm's way and they transformed into the forms still so new to them to keep Remus company.

The transformation wasn't as bad as it could have been, but it was still hard, and as James and Sirius draped the large blanket over Remus' pale, bruised and bleeding form, tucking it carefully around him, they found that they couldn't bring themselves to take any pictures. They merely left, silently, before Madam Pomfrey arrived to check on their friend.

* * *

Several more attempts were made, but they were rather half-hearted and not at all worth documenting ((Sirius is shamed to admit to attempting at least three of them, and James never quite worked out where they ever got the idea that three soft-boiled eggs, a paper napkin and twelve rainbow-coloured paperclips would help them in their mission)). All that needs to be known is that none of them were successful ((Although none of them were particularly as disastrous as the one that puzzled James for many years afterwards)), which is why Sirius and James were found in the common room discussing their plans.

"Right," Sirius said. "We've tried sneaky, and it obviously hasn't worked."

"Well," James said slowly, scratching his chin. "To be honest, we haven't _really_ tried to be sneaky since we did the _Super_ Super Sneaky plan."

"Did that one work?"

"No..."

"My point exactly." Sirius clapped his hands together in a businesslike fashion. "So, sneaky didn't work - "

"And direct didn't work. He said no when you asked him."

"Then _clearly_ we need to combine the two."

"Snirect?" James suggested.

"Deaky." Sirius said. "We need to be Deaky."

"Alright then. Deaky it is."

* * *

So it was decided. The 'Deaky' pair planned their expedition as well as they could. James was in charge of the camera, Sirius was in charge of wrestling Remus' hair tie away from him.

They took James' invisibility cloak and followed Remus up to the Library where he began to do his homework and waited patiently ((Alright, not so patiently. Sirius took the time to have a nap and drooled all over James' shoulder.)) for the place to become empty enough for them to take the picture.

Finally, when all sane people had left the library thinking up excuses to explain why their homework wasn't complete, and all but a few candles had been extinguished, James and Sirius were able to put their plan into motion.

"Boo!" Sirius hissed in Remus' ear, as he slipped out from under the cloak and snuck up behind his friend, quickly disentangling the hair tie. Remus jumped.

"Wha – Ack! Sirius! Give that back!" He reached for the hair tie, starting to stand, but Sirius placed a hand firmly on the top of his head and pushed him back down into his seat.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Sirius said to the world in general. "I present Remus Lupin - _with his hair down_!"

"_Sirius_..." Remus growled warningly.

"Prongs is here to commemorate the occasion." Sirius said cheerfully, pointing to where James had shucked the cloak and was aiming the camera at them. "Smile for the camera, Moony!"

"I most certainly will _not_!" Remus said huffily, folding his arms and scowling.

"Fine," Sirius grinned. "Look smoulderingly sexy at the camera."

"_Then_ will you give me my hair tie back?"

"Depends how much you smoulder."

"I hate you, Black." Remus growled.

"Say Cheese!" James called, waving a hand to get their attention.

"I hate you too, Potter." Remus said, making sure that James knew he wasn't getting out of aiding and abetting the lunatic that was currently pinning him to his seat without any punishment. James didn't answer, merely pressed the button and the photo took.

* * *

_the__ picture can be found at: www . deviantart . com / deviation / 15858011 ((Just take the spaces out))_

_Props, also, to Lily Anne the Grey for noticing the slight error I made with regards to dates. _


	3. Word Games November 1974

**Word Games - ****November 27th 1974**

"Hey Padfoot!" James called, weaving through the crowd of students towards his friend, very likely concussing several shorter first years with his bag on the way. "Oi!"

Sirius stopped obligingly and grinned at James.

"Hullo fathead." He said cheerily. "What do you want?"

"Fancy going out to chuck a quaffle around for a bit?"

"Can't." Sirius said, turning and moving out of the flow of students. James followed, his face showing that he was terribly close to whining.

"Why not?" James demanded. "You haven't got a detention for once and we've got all weekend to do our homework."

"'M busy." Sirius shrugged. "Sorry."

"No you're not."

"You're right, I'm not. It just seemed polite to apologise."

"No, I mean you're not busy." James stated. Sirius blinked.

"Yes I am."

"No you're not. I officially cancel all your appointments and declare you Not Busy." He poked Sirius in the chest. "Now go get your broomstick."

"Nice try, Prongs." Sirius said with a smirk, pushing his friend's hand away. "But I really am busy."

"But if you don't play, I'll have to play with Peter!" James whined. "And he can't catch for shit!"

"That's alright then," Sirius tossed over his shoulder as he walked away. "Neither can you."

* * *

James scowled and moodily threw the quaffle to Peter, who, as James had expected, missed it.

"I can't believe this!" He steamed, as Peter flew back up from retrieving the ball. "This is the third time he's ditched me in the past fortnight!"

"Maybe," Peter said. "He really is busy."

"What the hell could keep him too busy to sneak into Hogsmeade and nick butterbeer!" James demanded. "Or too busy to see if we can beat the staircase into the girls' dorm!"

"Maybe he's got a girlfriend." Peter suggested.

James frowned.

"Why wouldn't he tell me if he's got a girlfriend?"

"Because you'd make it your duty to embarrass him in front of her?"

"I would not!" James tried his best to look affronted, but even he was forced to admit the truth behind that statement. "Well, maybe I would. But only because he does it to me!" He huffed. "But if he is hiding a bird from me, how'm I going to find out?"

"Ask Moony." Peter said, flinging the quaffle back at James and nearly falling off his broom in the process ((Peter did not have the best sense of balance in the world.))

"I have." James replied, wincing as the ball hit him square in the chest. "Says he just dosses around the dorm with him."

"Maybe he's covering for Pads."

"I don't know about Moony," James said. "But I wouldn't want to hang around if Padfoot and his girlfriend were sucking face on the other side of the room, and everyone else I've asked has said that they never see either of them leave the dorm." He drew back his arm to throw the quaffle as Peter made a squeaking noise that meant something had just occurred to him and taken him rather by surprise.

"Maybe _Moony's_ Sirius' girlfriend!" He gasped.

James, who had been in the process of bringing his arm forward in the throw, froze, dropping the quaffle and almost toppling off his own broom. After the little, undignified scrabble for grip that followed, James regained his balance and stared wildly at Peter.

"_What!_" He screeched, as the quaffle landed with a 'plumpf' on the ground below.

"Maybe," Peter said, bouncing slightly in the manner that he did when he was terribly excited. "Maybe Padfoot is sucking _Moony's_ face!"

James looked somewhat sceptical.

"Are you trying to suggest that Remus and Sirius are having a torrid love affair under our very noses?"

"Yes!"

James thought about this.

"It's a possibility, I suppose."

* * *

"Prongs is mad at me again." Sirius declared, as he banged into the dormitory with his usual grace, kicking the door shut behind him. "He's gone off to sulk for a bit now because he can't quite handle being ditched four times. Apparently Peter sucks worse than James expected at Quidditch."

"You can go join him if you want." Remus said, setting out the stuff they needed on the large desk they had near the window in their room. "You don't have to play with me."

"But I _like_ playing with you!" Sirius protested. "Because you play lazy games! James doesn't play lazy games and I like being lazy!"

Remus raised an eyebrow at him as he sat down at the desk.

"Alright then." He said slowly, as Sirius came to sit beside him. "Shall I start, or do you want to?"

"You can." Sirius said graciously.

Remus nodded and flipped open his dictionary, scanning the pages.

"A member of a Native American people of central Peru." He read.

"Aborigine?" Sirius guessed, not even opening his own dictionary.

"Since when has that begun with a 'Q'?" Remus asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Oh." Sirius opened his own dictionary and flipped to the right section.

"It's between 'Quarrel' and 'Queen'." Remus said helpfully.

"How strangely appropriate." Sirius muttered.

"Why appropriate?"

"Because James is a nancing great Queen and I've just had a big Quarrel with him." Sirius expanded. "Que'chu?"

"Bless you."

"Ahahaha. So funny. My turn. 'Of or dependant on alms; charitable; gratuitous.'" Sirius read clearly. "Between Electric and Elegize."

"Eleemonsynary." Remus replied promptly.

"That was quick." Sirius said, blinking. Remus shrugged. "Alright, your turn."

"'The sorow, goat-like antelope of Nepal; Himalayan wild goat.' Between 'Thane' and 'That'."

"Tharrrrr..." Sirius drawled gleefully.

"Yes," Remus said dryly. "But with less gratuitous 'r's."

"Okay, 'the ringing of bells', between Timelock and Titian."

"I don't have Timelock." Remus protested, after scouring his dictionary for a while.

"Between Time and Tit then." Sirius shrugged.

"Tintinnabulation?"

"Correct!" Sirius said, flicking the pages of his dictionary absently. He paused. "Oh bollocks."

"What?"

"I can't call James a gimp any more." He pouted. "It means 'Courage'. I've been accidentally complimenting him!"

"There there," Remus soothed, in a terribly insincere manner. "'A small box with perforated lid for perfumes.' Between Poultry and Pound."

"Oh you ponce." Sirius said, in vague disgust. "Pouncet Box."

"Well done."

"'The use of a name of a single object, of or adjunct to a thing as a way of referring to the whole thing itself'." Sirius proclaimed smugly. "Between Metic and Metropolis."

"Metonymy." Remus read, wrinkling his nose. "That can't be a real word."

"Dictionary says it is." Sirius said, pointing at the page. "And the Oxford Concise Dictionary never lies."

"Alright. My turn." Remus found something and his eyes lit up with mischief. "'And of a group of radially symmetrical marine animals, including starfish, sea urchins, etc. Between Ebola fever and Economy."

Before Sirius could respond, the door to the dorm was flung open and James burst in. Sirius flung himself forward over the books, trying to hide the fact that he and Remus had been playing with dictionaries. Remus leaned back in his chair and wondered how anyone could ever have thought Sirius Black was sneaky.

"Gotcha!" James cried, brandishing Sirius' camera which he had nicked earlier and taking a picture. "Hah! Evidence that you are nancing great poofs!"

Neither Remus nor Sirius responded, and James slowly lowered the camera and took in the scene properly – the pair of them seated at desks and the dictionaries which were patently obvious beneath Sirius' arms. His lip curled in disgust.

"Oh you great big _geeks_." He said, and stomped out the room.

There was a pause.

"Moony," Sirius said, sitting upright. "I don't have Ebola Fever, you're going to have to give me something else."

Remus burst out laughing.

* * *

_Photograph can be found here: www . deviantart . com / deviation / 16174287 /_

_Just remove the spaces._


End file.
